Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Shara Norton
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
See Project Page for assignment details.
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
At the beginning of each unit, I begin by trying to assess students' prior knowledge. I do this in various ways, usually by giving students a pre-test or through the Daily Question and class discussions. I always try to get a feel for how much experience students have had with the upcoming topic. Most of the time, I find that students don't know very much at all about the new topics. I find this to be very helpful because it serves as a starting point for my instruction as well as a way for me to gauge students' progress throughout the unit. During the unit I tend to assess students formatively through homework and class work assignments, group work, lab experiments, and class discussions. When students work in groups on class work, I circulate the room to monitor students' progress, listen to how they explain things to each other, and make mental notes on what areas trouble students the most. I use all of information I gather through these formative assessments to adjust my lessons to focus on the trouble areas and also to make parts of my lessons more challenging for high-achieving students. At the end of each unit, I assess students summatively by giving them a chapter test. The formats of these tests vary, but they usually include true/false, multiple choice, and problem-solving sections. These tests include a good representation of class work, homework, information from the book, and questions pertaining to the labs we did throughout the chapter. I try to use many different types of questions to give students a better opportunity to prove what they know.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic.
In the informal assessment, I am trying to assess students' knowledge of molar ratios and stoichiometry by determining which antacid is more effective in easing indigestion. Students will be required to determine which antacid (baking soda or milk of magnesia) is more effective using given balanced chemical equations and their knowledge of chemical equations, molar ratios, and stoichiometry. In this activity, students should be able to determine that milk of magnesia is more effective than baking soda because the molar ratio of milk of magnesia to hydrochloric acid is 1:2 (as given in the balanced chemical equation). Students should be able to explain that coefficients give molar ratios of reactants and products in a balanced chemical equation, and they should be able to explain that according to the molar ratio, milk of magnesia neutralizes more acid than does baking soda. In this activity, students should also include stoichiometric calculations to support their answers. Some difficulties that students may have with this assignment is applying their knowledge of molar ratios to draw a conclusion about which antacid is more effective. A common misconception is that a 1:1 molar ratio means that they are equal and are therefore more effective. They may think that they would need less baking soda to neutralize the acid than milk of magnesia. In actuality, the 1:2 molar ratio shows that milk of magnesia neutralizes twice as much acid than baking soda does per gram. The GSE that this assignment covers is **PS2 (Ext) - 6** Students demonstrate an understanding of physical, chemical, and nuclear changes by6aa using chemical equations and information about molar masses to predict quantitatively the masses of reactants and products in chemical reactions. This topic is important to teach because it is a practical application of the concepts we have learned in stoichiometry to students' everyday life.
In the formal assessment, I am trying to assess students' full understanding of the mole. The mole is an international unit of quantity used by all scientific communities. It is used in equation stoichiometry and in the making of solutions of known concentration. A mole is equal to 6.02 X 10^23 particles of an element or compound. It is also equal to 22.4 liters of any gas at standard temperature and pressure. A mole is also equal to one molecular weight of any substance expressed in grams. Using these quantities, conversions between moles, particles, volume, and mass can be calculated. Students should be able to describe a mole and its importance, identify and use Avogadro's number, and define important vocabulary such as molar mass, atomic mass, empirical formula, percent composition, and formula mass. Students should also be able to use their knowledge about the above topics to calculate the molar mass of compounds, calculate the percent mass of an element in a compound, calculate the percent composition of each element in a compound using its chemical formula and molar mass, determine the empirical formula of a compound using the molar mass of elements in a compound, and perform molar conversions between number of particles, moles, mass, and volume of a substance. Students have difficulty with these concepts because their math skills are not very strong. They get confused about whether they should multiply or divide when doing conversions and they also get thrown off by Avogadro's number which includes an exponent. The concept of the mole and the application of this concept are very important for students to learn because all scientists use the mole to measure quantity and to convert molar quantities in a lab.
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
Students will be required to determine which antacid (baking soda or milk of magnesia) is more effective using given balanced chemical equations and their knowledge of chemical equations, molar ratios, and stoichiometry. Students will present their answer in the form of a scientific explanation that includes a claim, evidence, and reasoning. Prior to doing this activity, students will learn and practice how to write scientific explanations. While explaining the directions of this activity, I will ask students to tell me the three parts of a scientific explanation and I will write them on the board for students to refer to if they get stuck. I will also keep the general rubric of a scientific reasoning displayed on the projector throughout the class. I will pass out an activity sheet that explains the task and provides instructions. I will instruct students to neatly write their scientific explanations on a separate sheet of paper. The student handout is attached below.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well. The formal assessment I have created is a test on Chapter 10 - The Mole. This test includes all of the topics we learned throughout this unit including the mole, molar mass, Avogadro's number, mole conversions, percent composition, and empirical formula. The format of this test is 4 true/false, 6 multiple choice, and 10 problem-solving questions. The true/false and multiple choice questions count for 40 points (4 points each) and the problem-solving questions count for 60 points (6 points each). I will grade this assessment using a key. On the key I developed, I divided up the 6 points for each problem-solving question to give partial credit for showing work and providing the correct number of significant digits and the correct units in their answer.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
For the informal assessment, I developed a rubric to evaluate students' scientific explanations. The rubric is divided into three categories (claim, evidence, and reasoning) and students can earn between 0 and 2 points for each category. This rubric addresses different depths of knowledge because it asks students to identify which antacid is more effective, explain why they made their claim, and relate their explanation to the scientific concepts we learned in this chapter. I will grade the scientific explanations using the rubric I developed above. In addition to giving students the graded rubric, I will also provide written feedback on their explanations. Such feedback will include what they did well, what could be improved and suggestions for making the explanation more complete. This assignment will be very useful in many ways. It will provide me feedback in how well students understand the concepts of molar ratios and stoichiometry, it will highlight any misconceptions or difficulties students have, and it will provide students with feedback about what they do well and how they can improve.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assesssment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
I think this assessment did a good job addressing all the topics I was trying to assess. The questions were presented in different formats (multiple choice, true/false, and problems solving) to assess different depths of knowledge (recall, define, application). I included a variety of questions and tried to spread out the content evenly so there were fair numbers of questions for each topic. In order to accommodate students with learning differences, I allowed students to make and use a note card on the test, as well as a periodic table and a mole wheel. A also allowed students the whole class (90 minutes) to complete the test to accommodate students who require extra time on tests. For students who finished early, I gave them a chemistry crossword puzzle and assigned the Chapter 11 vocabulary.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
The informal assessment gave me good insight into what my students know, and what they still need to learn. Overall, students were able to determine which antacid is the most effective, but a lot of students had difficulty supporting their answers with evidence. Through this assessment, I was able to see that most students are comfortable performing stoichiometric calculations using molar ratios and conversion factors. However, even though students are able to do the math, they have difficulty applying the concept of stoichiometry to real life examples. For example, many students included stoichiometric calculations to support their answers, but neglected to explain how balanced equations provide molar ratios that can be used in stoichiometric calculations. This allows me to conclude that these students comprehend the procedure to find the answer, but they do not fully understand the concept of stoichiometry enough to explain it. A large group of students showed through their thoughtful responses that they do understand stoichiometry and they have mastered the topics associated with this concept.
The formal assessment gave me good insight into what my students know, and what they still need to learn. My students’ strongest areas were in the problem solving section. The majority of students lost points in the multiple choice section of the test which covered the vocabulary in the chapter as well as conversion factors and molar mass. Since the majority of students did well on the problem solving section of the test and poorly on the multiple choice, this shows me that they mastered the topics we covered in class, but may not have studied enough on their own in terms of vocabulary. The problem solving questions that students had the most difficulty with were the questions pertaining to calculating empirical formula. These types of problems may be considered the most difficult on the test because they involve many steps. Students also confused “percent composition” problems with “empirical formula” problems, probably due to the lack of studying the important vocabulary of the chapter. I believe that this test was a good assessment, and it gave me a lot of insight into what my students learned throughout the course of this chapter. Coming into this chapter, students did not know what a mole was, and when I began doing math on the board, they freaked out. This assessment shows me that they have developed an understanding of the mole, its usefulness, and how to apply these concepts to the math that is involved in mole conversions. It is nice to see how far they have come and how their science and math skills have improved from the beginning of the chapter to this assessment.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
Total # of students who took the test: 80 Average: 76% Range: 98 (high) – 22 (low) = 76 # of students in Group 1: 40 # of students in Group 2: 40 Average (Group 1): 76% Average (Group 2): 76%
I have had two “groups” of classes this semester. I started out with two classes in January and have been teaching them ever since. After February vacation, I took on two more classes who had been bouncing around between many substitute teachers for most of the year. They were a chapter behind my other two classes, so I have been given an opportunity to teach all my lessons for a second time with my new classes. For this project, I thought it would be interesting to compare the performance of the two classes that I taught this chapter for the first time with the students who I taught this chapter using revised lessons. I was not entirely sure which group would perform better. On one hand, I thought that Group 2 would do better because I would have an opportunity to revise my lessons and make improvements before I taught them for a second time. On the other hand, I thought Group 1 may perform better because they have had a consistent chemistry teacher for the whole year, whereas Group 2 has been bouncing around between many substitute teachers this year and probably have not gained a strong chemistry foundation for me to build on. I was unsure of which theory would be correct, but I was eager to find out. To my surprise, both groups averaged 76% on the formal assessment. After thinking about this for a while, I can conclude that both of my theories were correct – Group 2 students had the advantage for receiving revised instruction, but had the disadvantage of not having strong chemistry knowledge before I started teaching them. I think these two circumstances weighed each other out. If I taught Group 1 this chapter with the revised lessons, they may have performed better because they had a stronger chemistry foundation to build on. Despite having the same average, I think Group 2 made a larger improvement over the course of this chapter. Their skills at the beginning of this chapter were much lower than those of Group 1, but they were able to finish this chapter at the same level as the Group 1 students.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
For the informal assessment, I included my students in self-assessment by giving them a copy of the rubric prior to completing their scientific explanations. By giving students the rubric before hand, students were able to see what was expected of them and produce their final product accordingly. Students were able to assess their work according to the rubric while they were completing the assignment.
For the formal assessment, I asked students before the test how many people studied and about half of them raised their hand. I took a mental note of who claimed to study and who did not. After the tests were corrected and I saw the results of the test, I was not surprised to find that the students who did well were the ones who raised their hands. When I gave the test back, I asked students to write a brief paragraph – Are you happy with your results? What could you have done to be more prepared for this test? How may you improve for the next test? The majority of students answered along the lines of taking better notes, spending more time on homework, coming for extra help, and studying on their own. I also included students in self-assessment by giving them the opportunity to make test corrections to earn some credit back on their tests. I think both of these methods worked well together because students were not only given the opportunity to reflect on their studying habits, but also to try and figure out what they did wrong and how to correct their mistakes. I was proud of my students for taking the corrections and the reflection seriously, because I think a lot of students realized that they have the ability to succeed; they just need to put in a little more effort at times. I was able to communicate to my students how important it is to study and to practice without singling any students out or making them feel bad. I was able to communicate to my students my observations in a constructive and positive manner.
15. Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
For the informal assessment my science concept objectives were for students to be able to determine which antacid is more effective, support their answer using stoichiometric conversions, and to explain how stoichiometry (molar ratios) can be used to make this determination. My scientific explanation objectives were for students to be able to write a clear and concise claim, to support their claim with evidence, to explain their reasoning, and to write a well-written paragraph that includes the three pieces of a scientific explanation. I think many students succeeded at the writing portion of this task, whereas more students had difficulty actually being able to explain the scientific concepts behind it. I think the rubric I provided and the scientific explanation example I showed gave students a good understanding of how to set up and write their scientific explanation. In the future, I would probably introduce this idea of a scientific explanation earlier in the year so students would become accustomed to explaining their reasoning and understanding the science concepts more in depth. In terms of content, many students were successful in explain how molar ratios and balanced chemical equations provide information for scientists to predict how much or a reactant or product is needed or produced. Many students demonstrated an understanding of molar ratios and stoichiometry. There were, however, many students that could not make the connections between the equation they were given and how to go about solving the problem without being prompted to think about molar ratios and stoichiometric calculations. Some students were able to determine which antacid was more effective, but were not able to do the most important part – explain why. This raises a concern for me that maybe I am teaching the problem solving process well, but the reasons behind it may be getting lost. In the future when I teach stoichiometry again, I will spend more time discussing and exploring the relationships between reactants and products in a chemical reaction, and I will also use more real-life examples throughout the unit to show students that this topic is relevant and worth understanding. In order to improve this assessment, I would like to make the rubric more specific for students.
For the formal assessment, my objectives were for students to be able to describe a mole and its importance, identify and use Avogadro's number, and define important vocabulary such as molar mass, atomic mass, empirical formula, percent composition, and formula mass, use their knowledge about the above topics to calculate the molar mass of compounds, calculate the percent mass of an element in a compound, calculate the percent composition of each element in a compound using its chemical formula and molar mass, determine the empirical formula of a compound using the molar mass of elements in a compound, and perform molar conversions between number of particles, moles, mass, and volume of a substance. The purpose of the formal assessment is to assess students’ full understanding of the mole and how it can be used. My students’ strongest areas were in the problem solving section. The majority of students lost points in the multiple choice section of the test which covered the vocabulary in the chapter as well as conversion factors and molar mass. Since the majority of students did well on the problem solving section of the test and poorly on the multiple choice, this shows me that they mastered the topics we covered in class, but may not have studied enough on their own in terms of vocabulary. This shows me that I effectively taught students about the mole and its uses. As I look back, I did not put as much emphasis on vocabulary in this unit because I thought it was pretty straight-forward and I was more focused on helping students understand the math involved in the chapter. In the future, since I do feel that the vocabulary is an important part of this chapter, I will focus on making sure students understand the words they are using throughout the chapter. From this assessment, I learned that things that I see as simple and straight-forward may be more difficult for students. One improvement that I can make to help students understand the vocabulary better is to have a short quiz on the important words from the chapter towards the beginning of the chapter, or to play a matching/review type game focusing on vocabulary. I think the questions asked about vocabulary are well-written and are a good assessment of student knowledge so I would probably not change the assessment; I would most likely adjust my teaching to make sure students are able to meet these expectations. In addition, when I teach my own students in the future, I will try to instill positive study habits early on in the school year that will help them prepare for each test.
Name: Shara Norton
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
- See Project Page for assignment details.
II. Preparation / Development1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
At the beginning of each unit, I begin by trying to assess students' prior knowledge. I do this in various ways, usually by giving students a pre-test or through the Daily Question and class discussions. I always try to get a feel for how much experience students have had with the upcoming topic. Most of the time, I find that students don't know very much at all about the new topics. I find this to be very helpful because it serves as a starting point for my instruction as well as a way for me to gauge students' progress throughout the unit. During the unit I tend to assess students formatively through homework and class work assignments, group work, lab experiments, and class discussions. When students work in groups on class work, I circulate the room to monitor students' progress, listen to how they explain things to each other, and make mental notes on what areas trouble students the most. I use all of information I gather through these formative assessments to adjust my lessons to focus on the trouble areas and also to make parts of my lessons more challenging for high-achieving students. At the end of each unit, I assess students summatively by giving them a chapter test. The formats of these tests vary, but they usually include true/false, multiple choice, and problem-solving sections. These tests include a good representation of class work, homework, information from the book, and questions pertaining to the labs we did throughout the chapter. I try to use many different types of questions to give students a better opportunity to prove what they know.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic.
In the informal assessment, I am trying to assess students' knowledge of molar ratios and stoichiometry by determining which antacid is more effective in easing indigestion. Students will be required to determine which antacid (baking soda or milk of magnesia) is more effective using given balanced chemical equations and their knowledge of chemical equations, molar ratios, and stoichiometry. In this activity, students should be able to determine that milk of magnesia is more effective than baking soda because the molar ratio of milk of magnesia to hydrochloric acid is 1:2 (as given in the balanced chemical equation). Students should be able to explain that coefficients give molar ratios of reactants and products in a balanced chemical equation, and they should be able to explain that according to the molar ratio, milk of magnesia neutralizes more acid than does baking soda. In this activity, students should also include stoichiometric calculations to support their answers. Some difficulties that students may have with this assignment is applying their knowledge of molar ratios to draw a conclusion about which antacid is more effective. A common misconception is that a 1:1 molar ratio means that they are equal and are therefore more effective. They may think that they would need less baking soda to neutralize the acid than milk of magnesia. In actuality, the 1:2 molar ratio shows that milk of magnesia neutralizes twice as much acid than baking soda does per gram. The GSE that this assignment covers is **PS2 (Ext) - 6** Students demonstrate an understanding of physical, chemical, and nuclear changes by 6aa using chemical equations and information about molar masses to predict quantitatively the masses of reactants and products in chemical reactions. This topic is important to teach because it is a practical application of the concepts we have learned in stoichiometry to students' everyday life.
In the formal assessment, I am trying to assess students' full understanding of the mole. The mole is an international unit of quantity used by all scientific communities. It is used in equation stoichiometry and in the making of solutions of known concentration. A mole is equal to 6.02 X 10^23 particles of an element or compound. It is also equal to 22.4 liters of any gas at standard temperature and pressure. A mole is also equal to one molecular weight of any substance expressed in grams. Using these quantities, conversions between moles, particles, volume, and mass can be calculated. Students should be able to describe a mole and its importance, identify and use Avogadro's number, and define important vocabulary such as molar mass, atomic mass, empirical formula, percent composition, and formula mass. Students should also be able to use their knowledge about the above topics to calculate the molar mass of compounds, calculate the percent mass of an element in a compound, calculate the percent composition of each element in a compound using its chemical formula and molar mass, determine the empirical formula of a compound using the molar mass of elements in a compound, and perform molar conversions between number of particles, moles, mass, and volume of a substance. Students have difficulty with these concepts because their math skills are not very strong. They get confused about whether they should multiply or divide when doing conversions and they also get thrown off by Avogadro's number which includes an exponent. The concept of the mole and the application of this concept are very important for students to learn because all scientists use the mole to measure quantity and to convert molar quantities in a lab.
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
Students will be required to determine which antacid (baking soda or milk of magnesia) is more effective using given balanced chemical equations and their knowledge of chemical equations, molar ratios, and stoichiometry. Students will present their answer in the form of a scientific explanation that includes a claim, evidence, and reasoning. Prior to doing this activity, students will learn and practice how to write scientific explanations. While explaining the directions of this activity, I will ask students to tell me the three parts of a scientific explanation and I will write them on the board for students to refer to if they get stuck. I will also keep the general rubric of a scientific reasoning displayed on the projector throughout the class. I will pass out an activity sheet that explains the task and provides instructions. I will instruct students to neatly write their scientific explanations on a separate sheet of paper. The student handout is attached below.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
The formal assessment I have created is a test on Chapter 10 - The Mole. This test includes all of the topics we learned throughout this unit including the mole, molar mass, Avogadro's number, mole conversions, percent composition, and empirical formula. The format of this test is 4 true/false, 6 multiple choice, and 10 problem-solving questions. The true/false and multiple choice questions count for 40 points (4 points each) and the problem-solving questions count for 60 points (6 points each). I will grade this assessment using a key. On the key I developed, I divided up the 6 points for each problem-solving question to give partial credit for showing work and providing the correct number of significant digits and the correct units in their answer.
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
For the informal assessment, I developed a rubric to evaluate students' scientific explanations. The rubric is divided into three categories (claim, evidence, and reasoning) and students can earn between 0 and 2 points for each category. This rubric addresses different depths of knowledge because it asks students to identify which antacid is more effective, explain why they made their claim, and relate their explanation to the scientific concepts we learned in this chapter. I will grade the scientific explanations using the rubric I developed above. In addition to giving students the graded rubric, I will also provide written feedback on their explanations. Such feedback will include what they did well, what could be improved and suggestions for making the explanation more complete. This assignment will be very useful in many ways. It will provide me feedback in how well students understand the concepts of molar ratios and stoichiometry, it will highlight any misconceptions or difficulties students have, and it will provide students with feedback about what they do well and how they can improve.
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assesssment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
I think this assessment did a good job addressing all the topics I was trying to assess. The questions were presented in different formats (multiple choice, true/false, and problems solving) to assess different depths of knowledge (recall, define, application). I included a variety of questions and tried to spread out the content evenly so there were fair numbers of questions for each topic. In order to accommodate students with learning differences, I allowed students to make and use a note card on the test, as well as a periodic table and a mole wheel. A also allowed students the whole class (90 minutes) to complete the test to accommodate students who require extra time on tests. For students who finished early, I gave them a chemistry crossword puzzle and assigned the Chapter 11 vocabulary.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
The informal assessment gave me good insight into what my students know, and what they still need to learn. Overall, students were able to determine which antacid is the most effective, but a lot of students had difficulty supporting their answers with evidence. Through this assessment, I was able to see that most students are comfortable performing stoichiometric calculations using molar ratios and conversion factors. However, even though students are able to do the math, they have difficulty applying the concept of stoichiometry to real life examples. For example, many students included stoichiometric calculations to support their answers, but neglected to explain how balanced equations provide molar ratios that can be used in stoichiometric calculations. This allows me to conclude that these students comprehend the procedure to find the answer, but they do not fully understand the concept of stoichiometry enough to explain it. A large group of students showed through their thoughtful responses that they do understand stoichiometry and they have mastered the topics associated with this concept.
The formal assessment gave me good insight into what my students know, and what they still need to learn. My students’ strongest areas were in the problem solving section. The majority of students lost points in the multiple choice section of the test which covered the vocabulary in the chapter as well as conversion factors and molar mass. Since the majority of students did well on the problem solving section of the test and poorly on the multiple choice, this shows me that they mastered the topics we covered in class, but may not have studied enough on their own in terms of vocabulary. The problem solving questions that students had the most difficulty with were the questions pertaining to calculating empirical formula. These types of problems may be considered the most difficult on the test because they involve many steps. Students also confused “percent composition” problems with “empirical formula” problems, probably due to the lack of studying the important vocabulary of the chapter. I believe that this test was a good assessment, and it gave me a lot of insight into what my students learned throughout the course of this chapter. Coming into this chapter, students did not know what a mole was, and when I began doing math on the board, they freaked out. This assessment shows me that they have developed an understanding of the mole, its usefulness, and how to apply these concepts to the math that is involved in mole conversions. It is nice to see how far they have come and how their science and math skills have improved from the beginning of the chapter to this assessment.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
Total # of students who took the test: 80
Average: 76%
Range: 98 (high) – 22 (low) = 76
# of students in Group 1: 40
# of students in Group 2: 40
Average (Group 1): 76%
Average (Group 2): 76%
I have had two “groups” of classes this semester. I started out with two classes in January and have been teaching them ever since. After February vacation, I took on two more classes who had been bouncing around between many substitute teachers for most of the year. They were a chapter behind my other two classes, so I have been given an opportunity to teach all my lessons for a second time with my new classes. For this project, I thought it would be interesting to compare the performance of the two classes that I taught this chapter for the first time with the students who I taught this chapter using revised lessons. I was not entirely sure which group would perform better. On one hand, I thought that Group 2 would do better because I would have an opportunity to revise my lessons and make improvements before I taught them for a second time. On the other hand, I thought Group 1 may perform better because they have had a consistent chemistry teacher for the whole year, whereas Group 2 has been bouncing around between many substitute teachers this year and probably have not gained a strong chemistry foundation for me to build on. I was unsure of which theory would be correct, but I was eager to find out. To my surprise, both groups averaged 76% on the formal assessment. After thinking about this for a while, I can conclude that both of my theories were correct – Group 2 students had the advantage for receiving revised instruction, but had the disadvantage of not having strong chemistry knowledge before I started teaching them. I think these two circumstances weighed each other out. If I taught Group 1 this chapter with the revised lessons, they may have performed better because they had a stronger chemistry foundation to build on. Despite having the same average, I think Group 2 made a larger improvement over the course of this chapter. Their skills at the beginning of this chapter were much lower than those of Group 1, but they were able to finish this chapter at the same level as the Group 1 students.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
For the informal assessment, I included my students in self-assessment by giving them a copy of the rubric prior to completing their scientific explanations. By giving students the rubric before hand, students were able to see what was expected of them and produce their final product accordingly. Students were able to assess their work according to the rubric while they were completing the assignment.
For the formal assessment, I asked students before the test how many people studied and about half of them raised their hand. I took a mental note of who claimed to study and who did not. After the tests were corrected and I saw the results of the test, I was not surprised to find that the students who did well were the ones who raised their hands. When I gave the test back, I asked students to write a brief paragraph – Are you happy with your results? What could you have done to be more prepared for this test? How may you improve for the next test? The majority of students answered along the lines of taking better notes, spending more time on homework, coming for extra help, and studying on their own. I also included students in self-assessment by giving them the opportunity to make test corrections to earn some credit back on their tests. I think both of these methods worked well together because students were not only given the opportunity to reflect on their studying habits, but also to try and figure out what they did wrong and how to correct their mistakes. I was proud of my students for taking the corrections and the reflection seriously, because I think a lot of students realized that they have the ability to succeed; they just need to put in a little more effort at times. I was able to communicate to my students how important it is to study and to practice without singling any students out or making them feel bad. I was able to communicate to my students my observations in a constructive and positive manner.
15. Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
For the informal assessment my science concept objectives were for students to be able to determine which antacid is more effective, support their answer using stoichiometric conversions, and to explain how stoichiometry (molar ratios) can be used to make this determination. My scientific explanation objectives were for students to be able to write a clear and concise claim, to support their claim with evidence, to explain their reasoning, and to write a well-written paragraph that includes the three pieces of a scientific explanation. I think many students succeeded at the writing portion of this task, whereas more students had difficulty actually being able to explain the scientific concepts behind it. I think the rubric I provided and the scientific explanation example I showed gave students a good understanding of how to set up and write their scientific explanation. In the future, I would probably introduce this idea of a scientific explanation earlier in the year so students would become accustomed to explaining their reasoning and understanding the science concepts more in depth. In terms of content, many students were successful in explain how molar ratios and balanced chemical equations provide information for scientists to predict how much or a reactant or product is needed or produced. Many students demonstrated an understanding of molar ratios and stoichiometry. There were, however, many students that could not make the connections between the equation they were given and how to go about solving the problem without being prompted to think about molar ratios and stoichiometric calculations. Some students were able to determine which antacid was more effective, but were not able to do the most important part – explain why. This raises a concern for me that maybe I am teaching the problem solving process well, but the reasons behind it may be getting lost. In the future when I teach stoichiometry again, I will spend more time discussing and exploring the relationships between reactants and products in a chemical reaction, and I will also use more real-life examples throughout the unit to show students that this topic is relevant and worth understanding. In order to improve this assessment, I would like to make the rubric more specific for students.
For the formal assessment, my objectives were for students to be able to describe a mole and its importance, identify and use Avogadro's number, and define important vocabulary such as molar mass, atomic mass, empirical formula, percent composition, and formula mass, use their knowledge about the above topics to calculate the molar mass of compounds, calculate the percent mass of an element in a compound, calculate the percent composition of each element in a compound using its chemical formula and molar mass, determine the empirical formula of a compound using the molar mass of elements in a compound, and perform molar conversions between number of particles, moles, mass, and volume of a substance. The purpose of the formal assessment is to assess students’ full understanding of the mole and how it can be used. My students’ strongest areas were in the problem solving section. The majority of students lost points in the multiple choice section of the test which covered the vocabulary in the chapter as well as conversion factors and molar mass. Since the majority of students did well on the problem solving section of the test and poorly on the multiple choice, this shows me that they mastered the topics we covered in class, but may not have studied enough on their own in terms of vocabulary. This shows me that I effectively taught students about the mole and its uses. As I look back, I did not put as much emphasis on vocabulary in this unit because I thought it was pretty straight-forward and I was more focused on helping students understand the math involved in the chapter. In the future, since I do feel that the vocabulary is an important part of this chapter, I will focus on making sure students understand the words they are using throughout the chapter. From this assessment, I learned that things that I see as simple and straight-forward may be more difficult for students. One improvement that I can make to help students understand the vocabulary better is to have a short quiz on the important words from the chapter towards the beginning of the chapter, or to play a matching/review type game focusing on vocabulary. I think the questions asked about vocabulary are well-written and are a good assessment of student knowledge so I would probably not change the assessment; I would most likely adjust my teaching to make sure students are able to meet these expectations. In addition, when I teach my own students in the future, I will try to instill positive study habits early on in the school year that will help them prepare for each test.